'I am honoured to be re-elected town mayor by my fellow councillors, and thank them for their encouragement and support. It's a credit to all my colleagues that we have been able to work together to achieve a strategy for the future of the town.

As elected councillors our purpose is to provide direction and leadership to the people of Southwold, and I think it is true to say in the past year we have moved towards a culture of creating tomorrow, rather than defending yesterday.

Our vision is for Southwold to be the successful, vibrant, attractive town on the East Anglian coast, where people want to live, work and visit. We will focus on projects that are important for the town and we will not settle for anything less than excellence. However, we have the humility to admit when we are wrong, and the courage to change.

Meanwhile the beginning of the new mayoral term has been busy with many civic duties including the Civic Parade on May 22. I was pleased to see so many groups represented in the parade, ably led by Southwold and Reydon Corps of Drums; who played in the church service too and received a standing ovation.

There was also the Charter Lunch and the opening of the Charter Fair on June 2 and

I attended Steve Wolfenden's book launch at the town hall on June 16 where I awarded Steve a thank you gift from the town council as a mark of appreciation for all the work that he has done for us over the years.

Finally I started the Aviva Women's Tour, which was a great success, and have held many presentations outlining the town council's strategy for Southwold which has received positive feedback as people seem pleased the council is taking a pro-active approach.'